THE WONDERS OF VEGETATION. 17] 



chestnut-trees on Mount Etna, which have a diameter 

 of thirty-six feet. 



The tree we are describing is 160 feet in circum- 

 ference it is impossible to assign a limit to its prob- 

 able age. 



At the present day an opening sufficiently large 

 to allow two carriages to pass through it abreast, 

 penetrates it from side to side, but this circumstance 

 does not prevent the venerable tree from covering 

 itself every year with bloom and fruit. 



It ought to be added, however, in conclusion, that 

 it was the custom of ancient horticulturists to plant 

 around a single shoot a number of others of the same 

 species, so as to produce the appearance of a single 

 tree, which time would mature to a colossal size. They 

 peeled off the bark on the inside, and soon a single 

 bark came to envelope the whole. This practice was 

 pursued especially with olive-trees. 



THE SMYRNA PLANE-TREE. 



In the middle of the plain of Smyrna, in Asia 

 Minor, near the road that leads to Bournabat, is to be 

 seen the old plane-tree represented in our illustration. 

 Its singular form is not more surprising than its di- 

 mensions. 



Bournabat is a village containing a grotto, in 

 which, according to tradition, Homer wrote the Iliad. 

 This picturesque place is the favorite retreat of the 

 rich merchants of Smyrna, who have built here their 

 country houses. But the pedestrians, and even the 



